Meet Treasey Jones.
The attached image is the only time in history, that we know of, where she appears. She does it at an extraordinary time. This is the list of people who are drawing rations from the Freedmen’s Bureau in Raleigh, March 1868. You can see by her age, 107, along with another woman named Sylva Cotton aged 90. If her age is correct, she would have been born in the British colony of North Carolina around 1761. Her survival to this age, and the incredible events she witnessed, makes her life a compelling story to tell.

In the years following the Civil War, the U.S. Freedmen’s Bureau not only negotiated contracts between former enslaved and enslavers but issued rations to needed citizens, both white and black. Their records provide an extremely important record of African Americans in the wake of freedom and before the 1870 census, which Treasey doesn’t appear on. The Freedmen’s Bureau records are perhaps the first time these people claimed a surname for themselves.

Looking for Treasey on the 1860 slave census reveals a promising hint about her past. Looking at the list of enslavers in Wake County with the last name of Jones in Wake County suggests that she may have been enslaved by Alfred Jones born in 1789. Jones was extremely wealthy and came from one of Wake County’s original families. On the eve of the Civil War,

Alfred owned $15,000 in real estate and $80,425 in property most of this value was based on the 28 people he enslaved. The census lists the ages and sexes of his enslaved people. The first listed was a 98-year-old female which aligns with Treasey’s age. If this is Treasey she would have been enslaved on the 1780 White Plains plantation started by Nathaniel Jones in modern day Cary.

Ironically, Alfred died in 1865, the same year Treasey was freed. Maybe her freedom, and the freedom of others, led to Afred’s demise. Treasey disappears in the historic records but more research on Alfred Jones’ is needed to add to the story of this incredible woman who witnessed incredible events in the nation’s history from the founding of the United States and its war for independence to its war for union and emancipation.

-Ernest Dollar, historical researcher
Director City of Raleigh Museums Section
Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Department